Alberta oil-spills karma

The frequency of oil-spills in Alberta in the past month and a bit is some karma; bad karma for Alberta and the federal Conservative government in Ottawa, that is:

The latest spill occurred earlier this week in northeastern Alberta near the town of Elk Point, where Enbridge confirmed a spill of about 230,000 litres through its pumping station on the Athabasca pipeline. The biggest incident was earlier this month near Red Deer and Sundre in central Alberta, where 475,000 litres of oil from Plains Midstream Canada leaked, some of it spilling into the Red Deer River. In May, a Pace Energy Oil and Gas oil leak near Rainbow Lake in the northwest of the province spilled about 5,000 barrels.

There’s nothing like 3 oil spills in a month to highlight to Canadians the gutting of environmental laws by the Federal Conservatives, and the lax laws in Alberta. Both of these governments are trying to justify building a new oil pipeline to the BC coast, along thousands of kilometers of pristine wilderness and watershed, and events like this won’t help that. People have justification to be worried, particularly when the government(s) in question want this pipeline to be built with less environmental review, oversight and laws.